Licensing for Docker containers

Depending on your requirements, licensing an application within a docker container may have copy protection limitations.

If you are able to use our Cloud-Controlled Network Floating licensing, this addresses any issues with copy protection since each session is managed by SOLO Server instead of binding to a particular set of System Identifiers.

Otherwise, if your application has access to unique data, you may be able to use that data as a custom identifier and bind to it, possibly in combination with other identifiers such as Processor and Hard Disk Serial.

It is important to consider is your licensing requirements and environment. Will the docker container with the activated application remain on the same machine, or with the docker container need to move to other machines?

• If the docker application can persist data then the license file should be persisted. Once the application license is activated and as long as the docker container remains on the same machine, the license should remain valid as the System Identifiers will remain the same.
• If the docker container will be moving to other machines, the System Identifiers will likely change and the user will need to activate the application on each of these new machines. If you want to maintain the status of the license between machines, creating custom identifiers can likely help address the issue, and this is documented here. This could, for example, be used to bind the software to something unique to the company using it that your software requires. One common example we like to use is tax preparation and filing software that could use a Tax ID for a custom identifier.

Virtualization introduces its own set of challenges with licensing. This high-level blog post may provide helpful information.